Spooked

[sharplittleteeth]

Franz Ferdinand tickets purchased. Bank account sore.

And it still has to stretch to cover Diamanda Galas.


Just finished watching Spooks season 3.

I was really hesitant to watch this season. I'd read a lot of bad reviews, mostly from fans who were disgruntled because several of the main characters leave throughout the season.

And now that I've watched it? They're whinging fanboys. Season 3 is great.

Not perfect though. Tom Quinn (Matthew Macfadyen) was an excellent character. His replacement, Adam Carter (Rupert Penry-Jones) starts out so suave and brilliant and wonderful that he comes across as a Mary Sue. It's only towards the end of the season that we see the sort of cracks and flaws that made Tom Quinn so compelling.

The other flaw with the season is apparently commonplace on BBC serials: A major character leaves. The next episode they are mourned. And the episode after that, they are never mentioned again.

It seems to me that writers passed up a golden opportunity here. Season 1 and 2 had season-long story arcs, mostly about Tom's love life. With this season, they could have written a really interesting story about how these departures were effecting the team. You could have had Adam Carter blow in, all brilliance and designer stubble, but have the other characters going "who does this tosser think he is?", and then slowly rebuild the team over the ten episodes. Instead, they just ignore it.

We do get to see a lot more of the lonely, geeky analyst Ruth (Nicola Walker), who is one of my favourite characters. And I wished we saw more of Sam (Shauna Macdonald), but then I wish we saw more gorgeous women with Scottish accents in general.

True, there's a naff episode where MI5 try to recover the kidnapped baby of a famous rockstar. But there are some excellent ones too - like Episode 5 where Danny wrestles with his conscience after being ordered to assassinate a scientist selling bioweapons to North Korea. And the season finale is a heart ripper.

So... again, this is one of those reviews where I say "I thought I'd hate it. I was wrong."

Comments

[greylock.livejournal.com]

The Traditional US Model:
A major character leaves. They are never mentioned again.

Or, the Joss Model:
A major character suffers great hardship. The next episode they leave to find themselves. They are lameted about for the rest of the season. They appear as guest stars the following season for no apparent reason.

Or they die, are lamented, and turn up on the spin-off show because hormonal fan-girls WON'T LET THEM DIE.

[sharplittlteeth.livejournal.com]

One thing Whedon has said again and again is that the audience and the characters must be feeling the same thing. If a major and beloved character leaves and is never mentioned again, you've got a split.

One of the reasons I was thinking about this was because of something Whedon said at the Q+A. He was talking about taking these outside events (like Marvel telling him they wanted Colossus brought back to life so he could be in the new video game, or Seth Green deciding to leave Buffy), and turning them into the emotional keystone of the series (Kitty Pride reuniting with Colussus, Willow and Tara).

Seems like an opportunity the Spooks writers passed up.

[greylock.livejournal.com]

Colossus died .... and was then resurrected so he could be in a video game?
AND got back with Kitty (who presumably broke up with Pete Wisdom)?

Someone hit the reset button. Why am I not surprised?

[sharplittlteeth.livejournal.com]

Not being an X-Men reader, the magnitude of it all slid right over me. But yeah - someone hit reset.

[greylock.livejournal.com]

Joss writing X-Men, JMS doing Spiderman.
It's enough to get me reading again.

[neefsck.livejournal.com]

True, there's a naff episode where MI5 try to recover the kidnapped baby of a famous rockstar.

That one was a bit of a low point..
But..I watched that one for Andy Serkis :)

Season 3 does rock though.
Big Time.

[p-cat.livejournal.com]

It's nice to find somebody else who loves 'Spooks'! I must admit, I got hooked by the Tom-Ellie-Maisie storyline, so it wasn't quite the same for me after that concluded.

I'm still recovering from having finished watching this season, because I didn't want it to be over.

[(Anonymous)]

Spooks Session 3 is fantastic. Session 4 is now being shown in the UK.

Keep in mind in the UK producers have less control over the contracts of their actors, so when their three main characters left, the writers had to compensate. Adam is great, and he and his wife come out more and more as Tom, Zoe and Danny transition out. If it was anyone's series, it was Danny's.

I hope this series sticks around for some time to come. After watching the latest series of 24, here I'm bored, Spooks is still exciting and fresh! Changing characters can do that too, keep it fresh.

By the way David, Sam doesn't make it back into Series 4. However Anne Chancellor who was in Hitch Hikers does!

David Conyers

[(Anonymous)]

Oh, Tom especially might come back in a later episode, just as Jenny Agutter did in Series 2. He's still out there, his expertise might be required again some time.

David Conyers